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Michelle Spence-Jones is sitting inside the Lost & Found Saloon, a pleasant, dim Mexican restaurant on NW 36th Street in Wynwood. It's a cool, sunny afternoon. Before munching on a plate of shrimp, chicken, and pork tacos, the pretty, tender-voiced lady with jet-black, shoulder-length dreadlocks bows her head and says a prayer before eating.
"Maybe the investigation started with him first," she says, referring to Sarnoff. "He got scared so he decided to go after me and present his theory that the only black commissioner in this town is corrupt. How is that not racist?"Spence-Jones is a true Miami girl. Born and raised in Liberty City, she attended Lorah Park Elementary in Brownsville and later graduated from North Miami Senior High School. As a child, she played with Carey-Shuler's son at the then-county commissioner's home.
After working for the city for a few years, she was elected to the city commission in 2005. As with Sarnoff, that election was controversial. She was recently fined $8,000 by the Florida Elections Commission after it was determined she had paid poll workers in cash instead of checks. "I've been a target of allegations since the day I was elected," she says. "But that doesn't mean they are true. I have done nothing wrong."
If anyone deserves to be investigated, she says, it is Sarnoff. He was only a tool for Arriola. Take his handling of Rollason, who spent just one day on the commissioner's staff before abruptly resigning.
In fact, says Spence-Jones, Arriola ordered Sarnoff to fire Rollason. Not long before Sarnoff took office, she explains, the former manager walked into her office, pulled out his cell phone, dialed Sarnoff, and put him on speakerphone. "He tells him that no one likes Frank and to get rid of him," Spence-Jones claims.
Then, she says, Arriola demanded to speak with Sarnoff's wife Teresa. "She has more balls than you do...," Spence-Jones recalls the former manager saying. "Teresa said they would handle it, that they would dump Rollason."
On December 4, 2006, Rollason recalls, he showed up for work only to be called into the commissioner's office around 11 a.m. Sarnoff claimed two other commissioners, Spence-Jones and Joe Sanchez, disapproved of his appointment. So Rollason quit. "My relationship with Marc has deteriorated since then," he says. Indeed both Sanchez and Spence-Jones deny complaining.
Says Sarnoff: "Frank just wasn't the right choice for me. It is a decision I had to make."
After all of the debate over the Mercy Hospital and Crosswinds projects, both were approved last year. Spence-Jones supported them. Sarnoff opposed Mercy but voted for Crosswinds.
State prosecutors are investigating several criminal allegations against her, none more damaging than the one about her supposedly instructing the Related Group to hire her confidantes in exchange for her vote. No charges have been filed.
Until the investigation is complete, no one can judge the memo's veracity. But regardless of the conclusion, one thing is clear: As with the many other disputes that have filled Sarnoff's career, this controversy has made him better known and allowed him to seem the good guy.
Consider the commissioner's long climb to the commission dais:
• By playing the role of dog lover, he made most of Blanche Park off-limits to children and, incidentally, increased his property value.
• By leading the Home Depot fight, he positioned himself for political office. And, incidentally, the store still opened.
• To cement his position with city unions and his own constituency, he denies a close relationship with Arriola — though the facts contradict this.
And then there is the memo itself. Sarnoff's supposed source, Arriola, says the commissioner made it up. Conway says the memo "has elements of truth but that it is not completely true." Kennedy, Carey-Shuler, and Spence-Jones all deny the facts described in it.
Questions abound. Why would someone — anyone — write such a memo? Why doesn't the document include mention of his meeting with Mary Conway? Why did he wait a week to write it?
Indeed, Sarnoff's behavior related to the memo is odd. He gave it to prosecutors but fought an (unsuccessful) court battle to keep it from the Related Group and local media.
Nevertheless, Sarnoff, who once likened himself to a soldier at war, stands behind the substance of the document. "I believe in a God and a higher power," he says. "There are a lot of people mad at me. But I'm not doing this job to get along with people."